Meanwhile

The fields of Anantapur district motivated me to revisit my garden and plant some vegetables. I began my yearly repotting. Thanks to my aunt, I learnt about Coco peat which replaces sand in the 1:1:1 mixture of Mud:Sand:Compost for a container. They don't drain off like sand and can hold water for long time and would not let the mud harden. I found them in lalbagh. Green Chillies and Mangalore ladies finger were harvested. I also planted some Chow chow creepers. 

On Aug 9th, I met up with my French class friends for a discussion with the new director. I met Gowri, Sangeetha, Neha and Parashuram after a long time. I had to leave by around 10:30 to meet Stefan, a Romanian regarding an art Workshop that I was planning. I shall write about it in my following post. But it was good few hours that I spent with Stefan and his wife yulia discussing their education project at a rural school near Hospet, their experiences and challenges.  

After that meeting, I met my French buddies for lunch. Aman, Manohar and Dipali. It was great seeing each other after a long time. This is one group with whom I instantly bond. The fact is that except Manohar none of the others were my class mates. We know each other via organising the cultural event at AFB. Our common interest pulled us together. We discussed updates and n’importe quoi! for several hours and made plans for the next day.

On 10th of August Aman, Dipali, Manohar and I were joined by Preethi, Suri and Gowri for the movie - The hundred foot journey. It is a light hearted film about a clash between a French and an Indian cook. It was really sweet of Gowri to bring me a Rakhi. After the movie, we all decided to spend some time at the food court and we opened up a Rosé to celebrate our reunion. It was a great evening with lot of pleasant talk. And I remember thinking that with good friends time just flies.

Rest of the month went with lot of busy work. On 15th of August, I drove to Mysore to attend a thread ceremony where I met my sister Akki, Bawa and Deeksha who returned back to Bangalore with me. We spent two days relaxing and chatting. A lunch at Kamath restaurant, shopping at Orion mall and Gandhi bazaar made up the free day. 

Another thing that has kept me busy is the book "Avarana - the veil" by S L Bhyrappa that was recently translated. No other writings move me like that of Bhyrappa. At a point I had to stop reading and think how I was to read this book. I am 100 pages short of completion but yet unsure of what I think of this book. Its definitely a brilliant booked based on several historical facts but I am not yet sure of how I must react to it or how I must accept or reject it. But like any other S L Bhyrappa book this too takes you on a journey and attracts the reader like a piece of iron to magnet. 

The week of 18th was very hectic and taxing; busy days at work and busy evenings at home with preparations for the workshop. In between we had our UB party at Arbor Brewing company. It was good to meet our ex-collegues after a long time. But my mind was all planning for the weekend to come. I was about to realise one of my dream project - Conducting an art workshop for rural kids.